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Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Ginger Chicken Dumplings

I don't think I'm alone when I say that I find something so enjoyable about bite sized foods!Spring rolls, sliders, shrimp cocktail, caprese bites, two bite brownies, mini quiches... there's something so fun about little food (especially if you're eating all different kinds!)Though I think my favourite bite sized thing to eat, is dumplings.There's something so tasty about these pan-fried pot stickers, bursting with flavour, the right mixture of crunchy and chewy, served with sweet chili dipping sauce or soy sauce... I mean what's not to like?Today I want to walk you through an easy recipe for chicken dumplings! With almost no ingredients, you're probably just a package of won-ton wrappers short of making these delicious treats at home. At the bottom of the post I'll also make some suggestions for how you can mix-up your filler so that you can serve up all types of pot stickers, as an appetizer or meal!

Ginger Chicken Dumplings(yield approx 24 dumplings)Ingredients

won-ton wrappers

1 chicken breast

6 creen onions, diced

2" fresh ginger, diced

2 cloves garlic, diced

salt and pepper to taste

water (for consistency/sealing wrappers)

Directions

1) Prep your veggies! I always like to prep veggies before I deal with raw meat, just to keep things a bit more salmonella free! Dice all your veggies up small and set aside.

2) Now it's time to prep your meat. You'll be using a food processor/blender to properly grind everything up, but I chose to chop up my chicken into chunks and semi-cook it in a dash of canola oil first. When you cook your dumplings they will finish cooking.

3) All set? Grab your veggies and chicken and blend it like crazy in a food processor! Add your salt and pepper (and any other spices you may want - chili powder, paprika, cumin, etc.), you want your filler to have a paste-like consistency, so add water 1 tbsp at a time until you have a nice consistency, don't let it get too runny!

4) Now it's time to wrap up those dumplings. Take a sheet of won-ton wrapper (they're usually stocked with salad stuffs at the grocery store) and lay it flat. Using a teaspoon, take a heap of your filler and put it right in the middle.

Take two opposite corners of the wrapper and pinch them together, and then pinch down along the edges of the wrapper. Wet your fingers in some water and use that to form a better seal.Next, grab the two other corners and pull those to the top, again using water to seal.

There are lots of ways to wrap won-tons. I like this "tear drop" approach, but you can also just make them triangular, or wrap the second two corners AROUND to touch (very popular!) It's all the same really.

5) You're all done preparing! If you've made a bunch you can stick them in the freezer and pull them out at an event, or if you have a hunger on you can finish cooking them up! In a non-stick frying pan over high heat, add a tablespoon of canola oil and 1/4 cup of water for every 6 dumplings you make. Cook until the outsides are brown, and then cover until all the liquid is gone!

Serve them up with your favourite thai-chili dipping sauce! If you want to make your own sauce, check out this post for my favourite recipe!

Dumplings are super easy to make and there's a lot of versatility. This is a pretty simple recipe, but you might want to add leeks or lemon grass to your chicken dumplings. Alternatively you might want to use shrimp or pork instead of chicken!

The options are endless.

What's your favourite hot appetizer to serve up? Are you a dumpling fan, or are you more of a mini-quiche kind of person? Let me know in the comments below!